Chapter 57: Wrongly Accused, Finally Vindicated
[Han Entertainment’s Ma Feifei meets a rich second-generation heir late at night, admitted to hospital at dawn.]
[Wei Entertainment’s Zhao Ershan meets with the boss at night, admitted to hospital three hours later, diagnosed with anal tearing.]
[Han Entertainment’s diva Deng Ran evades 80 million in taxes.]
[Wei Entertainment’s newly poached Best Actor Hao Weidong evades 300 million in taxes.]
[Han Entertainment’s third-tier star Liu Zhao throws his weight around on set, contract terminated on the spot by the director.]
[Wei Entertainment’s heavily promoted newcomer Wang Anran has terrible acting, rejected by the director.]
[Han Entertainment’s first drama forced to halt filming due to suspected plagiarism.]
[Wei Entertainment suspected of stealing commercial secrets, under investigation.]
…
The entertainment industry had been ridiculously lively these past few days—almost one explosive piece of news every day.
Today was already the third day, and it was the fiercest yet. In just the time it took Jiang Yu to eat dinner, six more celebrities had been exposed on the trending list.
Han Cheng and Wei Rang were seeing red.
So this was what a business war looked like? Wasn’t this just exposing each other’s dirty laundry?
Lose a thousand to kill a thousand. If this kept up, Han Entertainment had several times more artists than Wei Entertainment—Wei Rang was bound to lose.
The entire entertainment circle was on edge. Chewing on a chicken leg, Jiang Yu thought about what dirt he might have. Other than being kept by Han Cheng, he didn’t seem to have any black marks.
But if that one got exposed, it would still be enough to ruin him. If it really came out, being forced to quit the entertainment industry outright wouldn’t be so bad—thinking about it, he even felt a little anticipatory.
That night, probably hundreds of millions of people stayed up late with Jiang Yu, all watching the trending list, waiting to see who would be exposed next.
Jiang Yu scrolled until the latter half of the night, and he didn’t know when he fell asleep. In his dream, he was being stared at by a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Those blood-red eyes were terrifying. He was chased all the way by the T-rex, and in the end, he still didn’t escape—swallowed whole in a single bite.
Seeing the tonsils inside the T-rex’s gaping, blood-filled mouth scared Jiang Yu awake. The moment he opened his eyes, he met a pair of glowing ones.
Could a T-rex chase him out of his dream? Jiang Yu was so scared his hair stood on end. He sprang out of bed, and only after jumping down did he see clearly who those eyes belonged to.
Han Cheng stared blankly at Jiang Yu, who had jumped out of bed, and asked with concern, “Had a nightmare?”
“What are you doing standing at my bedside in the middle of the night? Trying to play ghost? I thought the T-rex had chased me out here.” Jiang Yu’s morning temper was terrible. He yelled at Han Cheng, then climbed back into bed.
“T-rex?” Han Cheng looked even more confused.
Jiang Yu glanced at his phone—3 a.m. When he’d last been conscious, it seemed to be around 1 a.m. He’d only slept for two hours.
It must have been this guy staring at him that caused him to dream about being chased by a T-rex. This damn man had woken him up.
After shooting Han Cheng a huge eye-roll, Jiang Yu closed his eyes, ready to go back to sleep.
Han Cheng looked at the back of Jiang Yu’s head, smiled helplessly, and went to the bathroom to shower.
Showering at three in the morning was too noisy. Jiang Yu tried hard to fall asleep, but the more he closed his eyes, the more awake his mind became. He glared toward the bathroom, then simply grabbed his phone and scrolled through the trending topics.
Good grief—he’d only slept for two hours, and two more people had already been exposed. One from Han Entertainment, one from Wei Entertainment.
This time it was more serious—drug use. The earlier ones had just been scandals; even tax evasion could be remedied by paying up, with a chance of a comeback. But these two had really crossed a dangerous line.
Han Cheng finished showering and came out clean and refreshed. Jiang Yu immediately asked eagerly, “How’s your business war with Wei Rang going? Any more dirt that hasn’t been exposed yet? Let me see.”
“No. Don’t get involved and stir up trouble,” Han Cheng said flatly, shutting down Jiang Yu’s gossip.
Jiang Yu looked at him unhappily. Then he suddenly remembered that this guy had suspected him of leaking secrets to Wei Rang. He’d been carrying that huge blame for three days now. Since Han Cheng was back, it was better to explain it clearly.
“It wasn’t me who leaked anything to Wei Rang. Out of all your film and TV projects, I only looked at the script of an idol drama—what was it called, Under the Starry Sky. Such a cliché plot; it would definitely flop. There was no point in leaking that at all.
I didn’t touch any of the others. I only printed two copies of Flirting Scholar. There should be records on the printer.
It was your Secretary Zhao who took me to your office. She didn’t take me to the lounge—she clearly meant to set me up.
That computer—when I went in…”
“I know. I’ve already investigated everything. Secretary Zhao was bought off by Wei Rang. She gave those resources to him before you ever touched that computer. He really did want to frame you,” Han Cheng interrupted, pulling Jiang Yu into bed.
His hands started roaming again. Jiang Yu slapped them away and sat up. “So my suspicion is cleared?”
“Yes. You’re no longer under suspicion,” Han Cheng said, reaching for Jiang Yu’s hand again.
Jiang Yu dodged and asked, “What about Secretary Zhao? How did you punish her?”
“She’s been handed over to the police. I’m suing Wei Rang right now. We have solid evidence—Secretary Zhao will definitely receive the punishment she deserves.”
“There was also that young girl that day. If she hadn’t called Secretary Zhao away, I wouldn’t have been alone in your office.”
“That girl’s name is Miaomiao. She really didn’t know anything. The contract was altered by Secretary Zhao—she did it precisely so that Miaomiao would call her away and frame you.”
“Since you already knew all of this, why didn’t you tell me?”
“That’s why I came back today—to tell you all this.”
“So President Han wronged me, and that’s just it?”
“What kind of compensation do you want?”
Jiang Yu was thinking when Han Cheng finally grabbed his hand and said, “Other than leaving me, name any compensation you want and I’ll agree.”
Jiang Yu suddenly froze. Just now, he hadn’t reacted the way he used to—his first thought hadn’t been about leaving Han Cheng. He’d only been thinking about what compensation he wanted, not about leaving.
Since when had he stopped wanting to leave Han Cheng so badly?
During this period, Han Cheng had really treated him well. Ever since he said he loved him, Han Cheng hadn’t had any scandalous partners for months, and he’d basically done whatever Jiang Yu asked.
These past few months, Jiang Yu had been spoiled into an easy, comfortable life. Only after Han Cheng’s reminder did he suddenly realize that he seemed quite satisfied with his current life and no longer wanted to leave Han Cheng.
Jiang Yu looked at Han Cheng. He couldn’t be sure whether Han Cheng truly loved him, but he was clearly starting to fall in.
Luckily, Han Cheng’s words served as a reminder—he still needed to stay vigilant in the future. This bastard had far too many schemes.
Since Han Cheng wouldn’t let him leave, Jiang Yu could only think about what compensation he wanted. But he lacked nothing, and for a moment, he really couldn’t think of anything.
Han Cheng didn’t have the patience to wait. He pounced on Jiang Yu, not giving him any time to think.
—
After a week of crazy mutual exposés, the back-and-forth between Han Entertainment and Wei Entertainment suddenly went quiet.
There was no news at all online. The trending list was taken over by major national affairs. Celebrities seemed to have suddenly gone low-profile—there wasn’t a single entertainment-related topic on the hot search.
Jiang Yu couldn’t help being curious and called Sister Bai.
“Wei Entertainment has gone bankrupt. Those bitches who jumped ship over there came back to the company today wanting to re-sign. Tsk tsk—you should’ve seen it. Those people who used to act all high and mighty were smiling even at a lowly assistant just to get back in.
I’m warning you—if anyone comes to you and asks you to whisper sweet things in President Han’s ear, you absolutely must not agree, understand?
Oh, and one more thing—Ji Xu is back too. President Han was the first to renew his contract.
The reason Wei Entertainment was taken down this time was because of Ji Xu, that undercover agent. He counts as a major contributor. Right now, I really can’t tell which of you two President Han has his eye on.
You can bully anyone else as much as you want, but Ji Xu—better endure it.”
Sister Bai hung up and sent Jiang Yu a photo.
In the photo, Han Cheng and Ji Xu were eating together in a very atmospheric restaurant, both of them smiling in a way that begged to be punched.
There was even violin accompaniment. Jiang Yu curled his lip in disdain—just a bunch of rotten radishes with bad hearts, pretending to be refined.
Sure enough, he’d been overthinking it. Han Cheng’s love was too scattered. This bastard really was the perfect example of “a dog never stops eating shit.”
